As an entrepreneur or business owner, you probably want sales.
As you grow your business year after year.
You’ll want to scale & have more sales!
A lot of sales.
This can be done through the use of Content Marketing.
What’s content marketing?
- It is the art of freely educating your target audience
- By doing so, you hope that they will become your customers in the process.
Over the years, we’ve had clients who ask us about Content Marketing.
Clients ask us, “What is the best way to do content marketing?”
Well, some answers can actually be found in the 1900s.
We’re going to closely look at 2 of the biggest companies.
Because where they are now is a result of the actions that they took.
Let’s take a look at:
- A century-old restaurant guide.
- And the craze of jogging.
In this post, let me share with you how Michelin and Nike dramatically increased their sales through clever content marketing.
The Creation of Michelin Guides
According to one estimate, there are over 1 billion passenger cars currently running around the world.
That is such as a huge number if you stop and think about it.
But more than a century ago, this wasn’t the case, particularly in France.
At the beginning of 1900, there were only less than 3,000 cars running on the streets of France.
This is a huge problem if you are a car tire manufacturer.
If you only have fewer than 3,000 customers who will probably buy tires from you every five years, then you know that will negatively affect your profit.
Thus, to solve this problem, brothers Edouard and Andre Michelin came up with a brilliant idea.
They created and published the Michelin Guide.
The guide’s main objective was to encourage people to go out more often.
By giving them details about where to go, how to travel safely, and improve their commute experience, people would use their cars more frequently.
The brothers believed that when people travel more, the demand for cars will increase and thus, the tires as well.
The Michelin Guide eventually evolved into a powerful and prestigious status symbol for hotels and restaurants.
As a result, people were curious why the Michelin Guide would endorse an establishment.
They would even make a detour or do a special trip just to see what Michelin Guide recommends.
The Michelin Guides further improve the brand image and awareness of Michelin Company.
The guide has brought the name of Michelin across the world.
While the Michelin brothers only thought of causing people to travel more, their guide has become a much-coveted spot by illustrious and popular businesses.
Because of this, Michelin grew as an international tire company.
The guide has become instrumental to Michelin’s success.
Jogging: From Weird to a Persistent Fad
Millions of people choose jogging as their definition of a good and hearty exercise.
But do you know that this wasn’t always been the case?
In the early 1900s, jogging was deemed as an activity reserved for athletes and boxers.
This was especially true in the US.
In the 1960s, most people didn’t jog and if they did, it could cause concern to others around them.
There were people being arrested by the police as there were neighbors calling the cops when they saw people jogging.
Jogging was seen to be so weird at that time that people will stare at you when you start running with no apparent reason.
All these changed with Bill Bowerman, a co-founder of Nike, entered the scene.
As you know, Nike is today’s biggest name in sports apparel, shoes, equipment, accessories, and services.
However, Nike’s humble beginning started with shoes.
As you can imagine, Nike’s market was so limited back then.
They are mostly limited to only selling shoes to athletes.
Now, if they can only find a way to turn ordinary people into “athletes” – become more physically active, then their sales will rise to the roof.
That’s when Bill Bowerman saw the opportunity with jogging.
As a legendary running coach, Bowerman introduced the benefits of jogging in the US.
He published a pamphlet on the topic and would later release his bestselling book, Jogging.
As an intelligent thinker, Bowerman didn’t settle with just endorsing jogging to fitness buffs.
He would later argue that jogging is for everyone.
It does not simply help you lose weight, but it keeps you and your heart healthy.
With the approval and support of the medical experts, jogging picked up.
Before you know it, the streets were filled with joggers who, you know it, wearing Nike’s shoes!
The popularity of jogging further entered mainstream when famous celebrities do it as well.
Jogging became popular and Nike was there every step of the way.
No wonder, Nike has become a multinational corporation, with a brand name recognized around the world.
Lessons for Entrepreneurs & Business Owners Today
“Old is gold.”
You probably have heard that before.
It basically means that there are golden lessons you can learn from history.
True enough, you should learn content marketing strategies from the successes of Michelin and Nike.
Here’s a quick look at these lessons:
- Keep your target audience in mind
- Identify a problem and provide a solution
- Show sincere care to people and they become your customers
- Be creative in content marketing and try to think outside the box
- Identify a way to benefit people that you can use an opportunity to earn
As you can see, the key to content marketing is to provide something useful to your target audience.
Before you present something to the public, you need to ask, “What is in it for them?”
People won’t pay attention to what you are saying unless you show them the benefits you are offering.
In short, you need to give something first before you can get something in return.
If you look at the initial stages of the Michelin Guide and Bowerman’s effort to introduce jogging, it is almost certain that they don’t get anything from what they are doing.
Michelin Guide was given for free and Bowerman was educating the public about health without getting paid.
However, in the course of time, their charitable work paid off and they benefited to how people responded to their effort.
The same can also be said today when it comes to content marketing.
Search for ways to improve people’s lives.
Inform them how to become a better version of themselves.
Educate them on how to do things properly.
Equip them with the knowledge and skills to perform certain activities successfully.
When people see that you are genuinely concern about them, you will earn their trust.
In turn, when a relationship is established, that’s the time you get loyal, paying customer.
So, the next time you want to do content marketing, start with your customers in mind.
Think of their problems and find a solution.
By doing so, you will be much better in harnessing the power of content marketing.
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